Use of covering dressings over wounds offers many advantages. However, a major disadvantage is the adherence of the dressing to the wound due to blood, serum or granulation tissue. The adherence of covering dressings to the wound introduces significant problems associated with a dressing change. These problems include pain and discomfort to the patient, disruption of the ongoing healing process or even the "take" on skin grafts, the loss of time resulting from the necessarily slow process of carefully removing the dressing so as not to disrupt the wound and reluctance on the part of the physician to examine a wound early for fear of disrupting the wound or graft.
Numerous types of covering dressings are available; however, the problem with dressing adherence is universal. Historically, efforts have been made to avoid adherence by interposing a dressing between the wound or graft and the absorbent or antibiotic covering dressing. Materials ranging from wedding veils to aluminum foil have been tried. Nonporous films have been used, and various nonadherent materials have been incorporated into the covering dressing to minimize adherence. These materials and treatments of the covering dressings have resulted in little success in avoiding adherence. Indeed, in some cases, the unavailability of a completely nonadherent dressing dictates that no dressing be applied to the wound even through the application of a covering would otherwise be beneficial.
Thus, a critical need exists, and has existed for some time, for a method of wound treatment which eliminates adherence between the covering dressing and the wound.